


The Lost Boys

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Children of War [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, Post-Series, Speculation, someone hug these broken children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 14:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7896670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe everything Yuri knows is wrong. Somehow, it wouldn’t surprise him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lost Boys

“Ready to go?” Yuya asks.

Yuri still doesn’t feel like he’s got much choice in the matter, but he’s tired and honestly he isn’t in a fighting mood, so he trails after Yuya as they leave the LDS tower. He stops at the elevator and looks over his shoulder at Dennis.

“Where are you going?” Yuri asks.

Dennis says, “I’ll stay here for the night. Tomorrow I’ll go back to Fusion and try to find my parents.”

Of course, because Dennis has a family. “Well…good luck,” Yuri says.

Dennis looks shocked. “Thank you.”

Yuri feels like something bitter is on his tongue. This whole ‘being nice’ thing is going to take some getting used to.

The trip to the Sakaki house is filled with chatter about sleeping arrangements and preparations for the future. From what Yuri can understand, there’s not a whole lot of individual space in the house, but Yuya has a large room that can accommodate everyone.

“It’ll be like a sleepover!” Yuya says.

Yuri imagines sharing a room with four people, all of whom he hurt at some point. He’s going to have to sleep with his eyes open.

The Sakaki house isn’t small, but it isn’t overly large. It is bright, with many windows to let sunlight in. That’s another thing Yuri isn’t used to—Academia was very closed off, the windows were nearly always covered with heavy drapes. The group files into the house and Yuri comes face to face with something else he wasn’t prepared for—dogs.

“En, Kilo, Watt!” Yuya cries, kneeling down and letting the dogs jump up on him and lick his face. Three cats trail behind them and one goes right to Yuri. He backs away from it and bumps into the front door.

“Are you allergic?” Yoko Sakaki asks.

Yuri fights to keep a straight face. “I’m not sure.”

Yoko picks up the cat and pets it. “Well, they’re very friendly, and they won’t hurt you.”

“I’m not afraid of animals,” Yuri snaps, his voice higher than he intended it to be. Suddenly everyone is staring at him.

“Oh god,” Yugo says, “You totally are afraid of them, aren’t you?”

“Am not!” Yuri cries.

Yuya looks appalled. “I’m sorry, I totally forgot to ask. If you want…”

“I am fine!” Yuri positively shrieks. He takes a deep breath and lowers his voice. “I was just…surprised, that’s all.”

Yoko nods. “Alright, but if they bother you just nudge them away gently, like this.” She shoos the animals out of the doorway with gentle presses of her hands and toes. Once the doorway is clear, Yuri skitters around the animals and throws himself into an arm chair, his legs drawn up under them.

“No problem at all,” Yuri says.

“Great!” Yuya says, “I’m going to go upstairs and get some clothes for you guys to change into. Erm, Sora, you might want to come with me, I’m not sure what I have that will fit you.” He and Sora dash off, Yuri can hear their feet pounding up the stairs.

“I’ll go track down some extra blankets and pillows and such,” Yusho says. “Same place, Yoko?”

Yoko smiles at her husband. “Same place.”

Yusho leaves, and Yoko sits on the sofa. She beckons to Yuto and Yugo and they join her.

“Alright, boys,” Yoko says, “Let’s lay down some rules. First rule—you never have to ask for permission to eat. Anything in the refrigerator is yours for the taking, don’t worry if it’s the last thing or it seems special. If it doesn’t have a name on it, it belongs to no one.”

This is taking a very different turn from what Yuri expected, and from the looks on Yugo and Yuto’s faces, they’re thinking the same thing.

Yoko continues, “We have a dishwasher, I’ll show you how it works. You’re responsible for cleaning up after yourselves. Wash the dishes you use and put them away or leave them in the drain board to dry. Someday soon we’ll take you boys shopping for clothes. I’ll teach you how to use the wash machine, and the vacuum, and we’ll set up a rotation for chores. Nothing big, just to help keep the house clean. I cook breakfast and dinner, I don’t expect any of you to know how to roast a chicken or anything like that, but if you want to learn I’d be happy to teach you.”

“What about what Mr. Sakaki said about therapy?” Yugo asks, “When does that start?”

“As soon as possible,” Yoko says, “Yusho and I will look around for some doctors and we’ll arrange for you to meet with them. If you don’t like the doctors we pick, we’ll look for another one. It’s important that you feel comfortable with your treatment. But keep in mind, not wanting to go to therapy is not a good enough reason to not like your doctor.” She looks over each of the boys. “You may not be willing to accept help, but you all need it. Is that clear?”

They all nod, even Yuri.

“And you don’t have to call my husband and I mister or misses,” Yoko continues gently. “Yusho and Yoko are fine. I don’t expect to be called mom, but it would delight me to no end. But that’s up to you boys how you want to think of me, and my husband. Just know that we respect all of you, and we want you to feel welcome here.”

Pounding footsteps announce Yuya and Sora’s return. They run into the living room and start handing out clothes, and Yuya starts talking about underwear and how they really need to buy some, and then Yusho comes back with an arm full of blankets and asks Yuya for help with something called an air mattress. Yoko goes to the kitchen to make dinner, and Sora shouts “Dibs on the shower!” and runs off.

Yuri looks down at the black t-shirt and jeans he’s been given. His head is spinning.

“This isn’t anything like the orphanage,” Yugo mutters.

“Or boarding school,” Yuto says.

They both look up at Yuri. “What?” He asks.

“What was Academia like?” Yuto asks.

Yuri thinks of the day he arrived, how Professor Akaba picked him out of the shivering crowd of orphaned children and had him taken to a private wing to be bathed and dressed. Professor Akaba met Yuri in a formal dining room and scooped him onto his lap.

“You’re going to be my most special student,” the Professor said, his hand on Yuri’s back. “I expect great things from you. Each time you excel, you’ll be rewarded. Now, promise me that you’ll work hard.”

“I’ll work hard, I promise,” Yuri had vowed.

The Professor hand-fed Yuri that night, and with each bite of food Yuri took, the Professor filled his head with everything he would someday do, and Yuri fell deeper and deeper into the Professor’s hands.

“Yuri?”

Yuri jumps and realizes that he’s got a white-knuckled grip on the clothes in his hands. He takes a deep breath and slowly straightens out his fingers, flexing them deliberately. He looks up and meets Yugo and Yuto’s curious faces.

“It was Leo Akaba’s world,” Yuri says flatly. “As long as I remembered that, everything was fine.”

Yuto looks sick.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Yuri says, raising his voice, “And it didn’t happen! It wasn’t like that! He never, he didn’t…don’t look at me like that!”

Yuri really needs to start thinking before he runs his mouth off. Yugo seems to have finally caught onto what Yuto was thinking, and he looks like he doesn’t know if he should believe Yuri or not. Yuri scrambles from the chair, realizes he has nowhere to hide, and sits back down, scowling at Yugo and Yuto.

“Shut up,” he snaps, though they didn’t say anything. He’s beginning to realize that he’s not convincing anyone of anything.

 

After everyone’s had a shower and changed their clothes, Yoko serves dinner. Everyone sits together at the table, so close that Yuri has to keep his right arm locked at his side to avoid hitting Yuya with it. At least he got a seat at the end of the table.

“Help yourselves,” Yoko encourages, “There’s plenty to go around. Yuya, will you let our guests have first shot at the food, please?”

Yuya pouts at his mother. “I haven’t eaten your food in months, I missed it!”

Yoko melts. “Oh, you little brat, you know just how to butter me up, don’t you?”

Yuri waits until everyone has finished reaching across the table and bumping into each other before he takes anything for himself. Yoko made chicken, boiled shrimp, pasta, steamed vegetables, and a huge amount of rice. Yuri has to take only one bite of food to know that he’s never had anything so good, and he immediately becomes suspicious. What’s the price of all this? What does he have to do for it? He’s halfway to lowering his fork before he realizes that he’s thinking like a victim.

‘ _These people aren’t clever enough to trap me with food,_ ’ He thinks to himself. ‘ _They don’t know what Leo Akaba did.’_

Yuri thinks of the early days, where losing a duel meant no dinner, and later when taking too long to win a duel also meant no food, and then when sometimes there was no clear reason for why he didn’t eat, how only when Yuri became obsessed with winning, when he crushed all those who stood against him, did food become a given again.

“Slow down, Yuri,” Yuya says.

Yuri jumps and looks at Yuya.

Yuya grins and says with a mouthful of food, “You’re gonna give yourself hiccups if you keep eating that fast.” As soon as he says it, Yuya hiccups. “Aw, dang it, there you see what I mean?”

Yuri realizes that he has, indeed, been stuffing his face. He needs to stop getting lost in his thoughts. Trying to distract himself, Yuri looks around the table. Yugo has cleared his plate.

“Yugo, dear,” Yoko says, “Would you like seconds?”

“Huh?” Yugo asks.

“More,” Yuya says, “Do you want more?”

Yugo looks shocked for a few seconds. “Is…is it okay?”

Yoko puts her hand on his arm. “Of course, dear. If you’re hungry, you should eat. I can always make more.”

Yugo bows his head and it becomes clear that he’s crying.

“What—?” Yoko asks. She stands and hugs Yugo. “What on earth?”

Yuya says, “Yugo grew up in a place where there wasn’t always enough food to go around.”

“Dear god,” Yoko says, rubbing Yugo’s back, “What happened in those dimensions?”

Yuri swallows guilt like he swallows his food. At least the division between the Tops and Commons wasn’t his fault.

 

Once the dinner dishes have been cleaned, washed, and put away, Yuya passes out pajamas and leads everyone to his bedroom.

“We have enough air mattresses for everyone,” he says, “And there’s extra blankets in case one of you gets cold. Obviously you can go up and down the stairs if you want, but my favorite way to go downstairs is via the pole. Just be careful of it when you walk at night, don’t want to fall down the hole.”

If Yuri wasn’t convinced that Yuya was a simpleton, he’d think that Yuya was trying to kill them.

The so-called “air mattress” isn’t the most comfortable thing Yuri has ever slept on, but it isn’t the most uncomfortable thing either. Yuri waits until everyone is distracted, then he subtly and quickly moves it further away from the others. If anyone notices, they don’t comment on it.

Yugo is the first to fall asleep, nearly as soon as he lays down and before Yuya even turns out the light. Yuri listens as one by one, they all fall asleep, their breathing going slow and deep. Yuri closes his eyes and draws himself inwards, listening to the beating of his own heart, the sound of air entering and exiting his lungs, the rush of blood in his ears…

Something jumps onto his foot.

Yuri barely manages to hold back a shriek as he sits up. One of the dogs is lying on his foot.

“Go away,” Yuri hisses, shaking his foot. The dog falls off, then jumps right back on. Yuri jerks his foot away and hugs his knees to his chest. “Leave me alone,” he whispers, his voice dangerously close to a plea. The dog gives him a curious look.

“Yuya!” Yuri calls quietly. There’s a snort, but no other sound that suggests anyone heard him. Yuri groans. Stupid boys are probably out cold. He could probably sit on their heads and they wouldn’t move.

Yuri grabs a blanket and goes downstairs. He lays down on the sofa and closes his eyes. Minutes later, the dog jumps on top of his feet once more. Yuri bolts back upstairs and on the air mattress, curling his body into a ball and covering his head with the blanket.

 _‘It’s just a little dog,’_ Yuri thinks. _‘What am I so afraid of?’_

Indeed, why is he afraid of animals? He wracks his brain, trying to figure it out. After a few minutes he remembers something he was told back when he lived in the orphanage. A rat had made its way into his bed, and Yuri was begging one of the teachers for help getting rid of it, only to be told that animals could see people’s souls, and clearly the rat thought it belonged with Yuri. The children had called him rat-boy for months after that.

“Animals can’t see souls,” Yuri whispers to himself. “That’s ridiculous.” He uncovers his face and scrambles back. The dog is inches away from him. Yuri snatches his pillow up, holds it to his mouth and screams into it. Across the room Sora sits up, his eyes still closed, then falls backwards, dead asleep once more.

Yuri throws the pillow down. “What? What do you want?”

As if he’s spoken an invitation, the dog jumps onto the bed and noses Yuri’s hand. Yuri whimpers as it begins to lick his fingers, but he can’t move. He closes his eyes, expecting to be bitten at any minute, but the dog just continues to lick him. Eventually Yuri opens his eyes again, and the dog looks up at him, tongue lolling out of its mouth, and its stubbly little tail wagging.

Is it happy? That’s just as ridiculous as the idea of dogs seeing souls. Why would it be happy around Yuri? Yuri hasn’t done anything to make it happy. Frowning, Yuri gets up, carefully makes his way around the room, and takes Yuya’s phone from his bedside table. He opens an internet search page and types, ‘ _How to tell if a dog likes you._ ’

After nearly twenty minutes of reading, Yuri is convinced that Yuya’s dog is stupid, because it clearly likes him. He goes back to his bed and lays down, and when the dog jumps onto the mattress again, Yuri holds completely still, waiting to see what happens. The dog lays down, and after a few minutes Yuri can hear it snoring.

“Dear god,” he whispers. He looks down at the dog and hesitantly reaches for it. He pats its side, and the dog stretches and moves closer to Yuri.

Eventually, Yuri does fall asleep. The stupid dog stays with him the whole night.

 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE LEAVING?!”

Yuri wakes up with a jolt as the shout echoes around the house. He sits up and across the room, Yugo looks around wildly.

“Wha’s happening?” Yugo asks.

Downstairs Yuya screams, “WE JUST GOT YOU BACK!”

Yuri’s heart pounds. Something lands in his lap and he looks down. The dog is looking up at him. It paws his arm and whines. Yuri pats its head and scoops it up without thinking. “Come on,” he tells Yugo, and he hurries downstairs.

Yuya is staring his father down. His chest is heaving and his eyes are bright with tears. Yuto’s back is pressed against the wall nearest the stairs, and when Yuri comes down Yuto edges behind him. Yuri puts the dog down and it hides under the table.

“It won’t be for long,” Yusho says calmly. “And I’m not leaving for a while yet. I’ve been to Fusion, I can help the doctors get to the children who need them the most. Someone has to make sure those kids start getting treated, it’s not just Yuri and Serena who need help.”

Yuya scowls. “So what? You’re the only person who can do it? Half those kids have no reason to trust you, the other half probably hate your guts! Why would you go to a place you’re not wanted when you literally just got home?!”

“Yuya, it’s going to take a long time for Fusion world to rebuild, psychologically,” Yusho says. He reaches for Yuya, and Yuya knocks his hand away.

“What about me?” Yuya screams. “What about what I went through? You left me! You’re leaving me again! You care so much about kids you don’t even know, do you even give a damn about me and what I need?”

Yusho gasps. “Yuya, of course I care.”

Yuya covers his ears and screams. “YOU DON’T FUCKING ACT LIKE IT!” He runs past Yuri and Yugo, up the stairs and into his room.

Yuri doesn’t think twice about chasing Yuya. He follows Yuya into his room and finds him flung across his bed, sobbing into his pillow. Yuri hears someone behind him and he turns around. Yuto and Yugo are on the stairs, and he can see Sora coming up behind them.

Yuri crosses the room and sits on Yuya’s bed. “That was a disaster,” he says.

“Damn it Yuri,” Yuto snaps, “Have some tact.”

“I mean Yusho is a disaster,” Yuri clarifies. “Yuya was brilliant.”

That gets Yuya’s attention. He sits up. “I’ve never yelled at him like that before.”

“You were perfectly in line,” Yuri says, brushing dog hair off his shirt. “You’ve been smiling for way too long, Yuya. You weren’t exactly eloquent, but hey, someone’s gotta call your dad out on his shit.”

“Yuri!” Yuto snaps again.

Yuri rolls his eyes. “Tell me you weren’t thinking it, too.”

“Your morals and thoughts are questionable,” Yuto says.

“You think that just because I’ve never had a family, I don’t know what good parenting is?” Yuri asks.

“Will you both shut up,” Sora says. “This isn’t about you, it’s about Yuya.”

Yuya rubs his eyes and sniffles.

Yuri hesitates, then pats Yuya’s head. “There, there,” he says. Yuya giggles, somewhat hysterically. Yuri leans away from him.

Yugo sits on Yuya’s other side and puts his arm around Yuya’s shoulders. “I’m sure your dad didn’t mean to disrespect you.”

“He still should have asked,” Yuya says.

Yuri turns to Yuya. “Maybe you should try going back down there and saying that, rather than screaming it. Your anger was justified, now you need to hammer your point home by talking about it rationally.”

Yuya sighs. “I don’t want to be rational. I want to be angry.”

“And that’s your right,” Yusho says. He’s standing in the doorway, regret written all over his face. “Yuya, can I come in?”

Yuya shrugs. “Sure, whatever,” he mutters, looking down. Yugo shifts as if to stand, but Yuya grabs his hand, and Yuri’s, too.

Yusho kneels by Yuya’s bed. “You’re right, son. There are other people who could take care of Fusion world. I should trust that they are professionals and can handle it. My place ought to be here, with you and your mom, and helping your friends get settled. I swear to you, I wasn’t planning on taking off today, or tomorrow, or any day soon, but I see now what it would have felt like to you, and I am truly sorry I didn’t think of it sooner.”

Yuya looks up hopefully. “So, you’ll stay?”

Yusho nods. “I’ll stay.”

Yuya lurches forward and hugs his father. Yuri takes that as his cue to leave. With no one stopping him, he walks right out of the house. He can’t believe Yuya forgave his father so easily. Sure, Yuri said he should go talk to Yusho, but he didn’t mean forgive him. Yuri has learned that forgiveness needs to be earned through more than words. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe everything he knows is wrong. Somehow, it wouldn’t surprise him.

Yuri makes his way to LDS tower and into Reiji Akaba’s office. Reiji looks surprised to see him.

“I want to go back to Academia,” Yuri says. Reiji looks shocked and Yuri continues, “Just for an hour, maybe two. I need to get something.”

Making Reiji leave an interdimensional portal open for two hours while Yuri traveled back and forth with plants was certainly not what Reiji had expected, but as Yuri slowly filled his office with potted plants he never once complained. The final thing Yuri brought through the portal was a bouquet of foxglove, orange lilies, asphodel, yellow carnations, and cardamine.

“Is there anything else you need?” Reiji asks.

“Two things,” Yuri says. “One, help getting all this back to the Sakaki household, and two, if you have a picture of your father that you don’t mind not getting back, I would like it.”

 

“Yuri!” Yoko cries as she opens the door. “We were so worried about you!” She looks behind Yuri at the many LDS staff members who helped him with his plants. “What on earth?”

Yuri holds out a potted bushel of a pink chrysanthemums. “These are for you,” he says.

Yoko takes the pot, looking stunned. “They’re lovely, thank you.”

Yuri steps into the house and the staff remove their shoes and bring in Yuri’s various potted plants.

“Where did these come from?” Yoko asks.

“Academia,” Yuri says. “I couldn’t bear to leave them in the inept hands of the students, I’ve spent far too long cultivating them to abandon them all.” He looks at the bouquet in his hands. “Yoko, you haven’t by any chance got a fire pit, have you?”

As it turns out, she does have a fire pit, and a stack of wood under the back porch of the house. Yuri takes his flowers out to the back yard and sets about gathering the wood.

“What are you doing?” Yuya calls down from the porch.

“Hopefully unleashing my anger towards Leo Akaba,” Yuri answers.

Yuya sputters and runs into the house, coming back with Yuto, Yugo, and Sora.

“How is a fire going to help you unleash your anger?” Yuya demands as he follows Yuri to the fire pit.

Yuri starts arranging the wood and he gestures vaguely to the bouquet. “That thing basically says ‘fuck you’ in flower symbolization. I put a picture of Leo Akaba in it, and I’m going to burn it and hope that whatever crappy afterlife he’s in, he gets the message.”

“Damn,” Yugo and Sora say together.

“You really don’t mess around, do you?” Yuto asks.

Yuri shakes his head. “So, are you all going to stand there or are you going to help me?”

The boys help Yuri arrange the firewood. Yuya retrieves a lighter and some cardboard to help ignite the fire. Once the wood has been set aflame, Yuri picks up the bouquet of flowers. He pauses.

“Would anyone like to say anything?”

Sora shrugs. “Fuck you, Leo Akaba?”

“Good idea,” Yuri says. “All together, then.”

“Fuck you, Leo Akaba,” They all chant.

Yuri drops the flowers on the fire. It takes almost half an hour for the flowers to burn completely, and no one looks away as the fire consumes them. When the blaze finally does die down, Yuya turns to Yuri.

“So, did that help with your anger?” Yuya asks.

Yuri grins and shakes his head. “No, but it sure felt good.”

**Author's Note:**

> http://rainbow-galaxy-supernova.tumblr.com/post/149609187086/flower-shop-au


End file.
